Ever since September, when New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak hinted that PokerStars was coming to the Garden State, players there have been eagerly anticipating Stars’ arrival. Unfortunately, it looks like that arrival will take much longer than anticipated. As reported by PokerFuse, the review of PokerStars’ gaming application likely won’t happen until next year.
This is certainly disappointing when considering that Lesniak’s time frame of a “few weeks” would have put Stars in New Jersey by late September or early October. But recently, Lesniak was already hinting that the process could take much longer than originally planned. When asked about the delay by somebody on Twitter, he responded by tweeting, “waiting on Christie, hopefully not like waiting on Godot.”
The PokerStars New Jersey delay goes back to politics
This reference to a play where two characters wait on somebody who never shows up immediately brought New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and politics into the matter. Christie is currently campaigning for the Republican nomination in the 2016 Presidential Election. And Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson – the world’s biggest anti-online gaming nut – just happens to be the largest donor for Republicans. That said, here’s what Lesniak tweeted as an explanation behind all of this:
Poker Stars in time out because they would boost AC and hurt Adelson’s attempt in Congress to shut down Egaming
Christie just giving Adelson time during Congressional lame duck session to kill Egaming
Lesniak has never been afraid to bash Governor Christie over delaying efforts to further New Jersey iGaming. And here he strongly indicates that Christie is doing Adelson a favor by delaying PokerStars’ launch until after Congress’ November lame duck session. Adelson is hoping and praying that the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) – a bill that would ban all forms of iGaming in the US – will pass during the session. However, it’s a long shot at best, no matter what Christie does to help the effort.
Is Ray Lesniak onto something?
While State Senator Lesniak has no concrete documents to back up his statements, his belief about Christie delaying PokerStars makes sense after looking at the evidence. When Amaya Gaming bought Stars in June, they quickly began talking with the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement about reviewing their iGaming application. Half a year has passed since then and there’s no word on what the delay is.
Considering that no other online gaming operator had to wait this long, it definitely seems like something is going on here. This is especially the case when you add in Christie’s campaign run and ties to Adelson. In any case, Stars should have a good shot of finally entering New Jersey next year.